Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams has always had a dark edge to her stories, but her new music seems darker. You can clearly see the evolution in the titles of two of her albums released decades apart.
In 1992, she released Sweet Old World.
34 years later, Williams offers a more somber assessment with her new album World's Gone Wrong.
"I had trouble getting a record deal because people kept telling me my songs are too dark," she told Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep. "The darkness, that's what makes things interesting."
World's Gone Wrong is a collection of protest songs, something Williams said she always wanted to write — going back to her admiration of Bob Dylan's work in the 1960s. Since the beginning of her career though, she found writing protest songs difficult — that is, until Donald Trump moved into the White House.
"Every day there was some crazy thing that the president said or made a decision about," she remembered. "And these songs just had to come out."
Williams feels compelled to take these songs on the road, despite the fact that she's still recovering from a 2020 stroke..
"I still struggle when I walk," she said. "My tour manager, Travis, has my arm as I walk on and walk off the stage. Sometimes I hold on to the mic stand just to balance myself. I can sing. I'm not playing guitar right now; that's going to have to come later."
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